Primary Menu

Post navigation

Fabric “box”

I saw some really cool box things in a gift shop. They are a square with ribbon ties to tie it up into a box. Of course I thought “hey, I could make that!” – so I did 😀

Theirs were stiffened with wood I think, so were very sturdy, but I figured I’d stiffen mine with wadding. You can use interfacing instead of wadding if you like… but I like the padded look.

Very quick and easy, and cute!

Start off by cutting 2 squares of your fabric. They will be reversible when you’ve finished. Something contrasting might look nice. I made mine 25cm (10 inches) square.

Mark a point 8cm/3 inches from the edge on each side…Then pin a length of ribbon (I used pieces 10cm/8 inches long) on those spots. These will be the corner ties that hold the box together. If you want the sides to be higher or shallower, or if you’re doing a different size, you’ll have to judge where the ribbon ties go (just try to fold the fabric as the box would go, and pin it together where you think the ribbon ties would go, and adjust as needed)

Make sure the ends of the ribbon are pointing into the centre, or you may catch them when you sew around the edge (and that’s a pain!).

Place the top piece onto the bottom piece, so both “good” sides are facing, then sew all around (leave an opening to turn it), and turn it out the right way… you now have a square spider (or you do if your ribbon has kinks in it from being wound around a card) 🙂

Cut out some pieces of wadding. For the size I made here, if you cut 2 pieces the same length as the sewn square, and then cut those in half. But if making a different size, you need the wadding to fit between the ribbon ties, but not going into the corners. I’ve shown where the wadding pieces sit – but obviously they go inside 🙂 like this:

So you poke the wadding pieces in through the hole you left to turn it through. This shows the wadding pieces where they go. Pin them in place (you won’t need as many pins as I used, I just used lots to show you where the wadding is)

When the wadding is in place, put a line of pins along the bottom edge. Then use this pin line as a guide of where to sew. This keeps the wadding in place and forms a fold line to make the sides fold up more easily.

Run a top stitch around to close the hole, tie up the sides and you’re done!